Face-to-face or in-person interactions among groups of individuals allow each individual to observe the behavior, mood, expressions, tone and the like of the other individuals in the group. Group interactions can facilitate relationship building by the creation of shared experiences. Traditionally, such group interactions were restricted to in-person congregations of the group. With all of the individuals together, they are able to share experiences like mutually participating in interactive sessions or audio/visual presentations. The camaraderie can be substantial and long lasting.
More recently, face-to-face group meetings among participants at remote locations have been permitted with live video and audio feeds of each of the participants. Both personal computers (PCs) and personal digital assistants (PDAs) are now commonly equipped with both microphones and video cameras that provide the basic resources for creating a shared sessions among a group of individuals with PCs or smart phones.
Such video meetings rely on Internet-based communication protocols such as “Voice over IP” (VoIP). Streams of video and audio packets are created, transmitted across the internet, and decoded and reassembled in a manner permitting each recipient to hear and see the other participants in a face-to-face manner.
In contrast, conventional communication systems such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and private branch exchange (PBX) systems continue to be the primary communications resource for large percentages of the general population. Such systems are based on switched networks that connect one location to another. Typically, such systems transmit voice signals between two termination points.
While an individual who wishes to establish an audio or an audio/visual conference may have several alternatives available to them. Audio/visual communications with a group of others has often been the domain of the internet. Alternatively, audio communications are typically the domain of the PSTN. And, these options are often not compatible with one other. For example, a group interacting in a particular VoIP multimedia communication environment is unable to communicate, using that environment, with other individuals that only have access to voice-only PSTN-compatible devices.